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"I thought you held some dream of love, some woman more precious, more perfect than Iand that is not hard to findin some inner place that I could never reach. I was not angry, Ian. I was ashamed that I could let some soft dream of the past change me. I strove to be a better wife, more what a man desires, not so quarrelsome or headstrong" |
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"Good God! You were my dream, Alinor. Always you and only youjust as you are." |
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Alinor put out her hand, and Ian took it. He drew her gently, but she put her other hand on his shoulder to resist without resisting him. "I have something more to say, something for which it is even harder to find words that will carry the true meaning. Ian, I loved Simon as much as a woman can love a man. I would not have you think I forget him or that I am disloyal to him. But there was, between Simon and me, thirty years. There was as much of father and daughter between us as of husband and wife. I did not see it then. I see it now only because what is between you and me isis so very different. I love you, Ian, as a young woman loves a young manand for me it is the first time of such loving." |
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Ian did not reply to that. There was nothing to say, fortunately, because he could not have spoken anyway. He took her face between his hands and gently and carefully, as gently and carefully as one would handle a fragile glass object, rare and precious, he kissed her and drew her down beside him. For a long time neither slept; their content was too great to need a sweetening of dreams. At last the body would not be denied, however, and sleep came. |
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Morning came also. Alinor was aware, after a time, of restless movement in the antechamber. She turned and tried to burrow her head into Ian's shoulder to shut out the demand on her conscience. The device did not succeed. Her nuzzling rubbed on a sore spot on Ian's shoulder and woke him instead. |
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